Evangelicals are tenacious, persistent, and driven when they want to fight for a cause. The problem is that American evangelicals have been swept up in fighting for the wrong cause for a long time.

When the Supreme Court ruled to make same sex marriage the law of the land, American evangelicals received a gift that many don’t want: official permission to fight for people in need instead of fighting against same sex marriage.

Whatever you believe about same sex marriage, the role of government, and the future of the church in America, disagreeing with same sex marriage on moral grounds does not demand a public campaign to prevent it from becoming legally sanctioned. While I remain committed to creating room for affirming and non-affirming evangelicals who unite under the common banner of saving faith in Christ, evangelicals in America should have never made legalized same sex marriage a central moral…

Wonder how other moms around the world raise their kids & make time for themselves?

Here is a sneak peek into the lives of 5 moms from five different countries – Brazil, Jordan, Singapore, the Netherlands, and South Africa. I think you’ll find that women/moms are very, very similar no matter what continent they live on, or what language they speak.

It was bestowed upon her by TMZ, a celeb gossip/news company (okay, technically from an online poll TMZ held). TMZ is not known for their excellence in journalism, but they are well-known & have a sizable following. And now Dina Lohan is known. Not just for being famous LiLo’s Mom, but for wearing the label of “Worst Mother Ever” for things like dropping her daughter off at a bar when she was supposed to be in rehab… yeah. Wonder if her younger kids ever use that award against her? Probably. I would have when I was a kid, for sure.

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This story is not to shame or judge Dina Lohan. Lord knows she needs prayer! Just an example to show that you are in fact NOT the worst mother in the world.

Besides the fact that you AREN’T, do you ever FEEL like the worst mother who walks the planet?

How about when your 2-year-old child falls head first, out of the cart onto the cement ground at the grocery store? Or when you get a call from the kindergarten principal saying that your kid threatened another kid with a pair of safety scissors? (pretty sure these two incidents are related somehow)

At times we all feel as though someone is about to hand us the Worst Mother trophy.

We screw up. We blow it. We scream.

We scold & talk to our precious child as if they were an idiot.

We spank in anger. We want to run away!

{I might need some confirmation that I’m not the only one who blows it.}

I can guarantee that all of you reading this blog love your kids. And I wouldn’t be going too far out on a limb to say you’d gladly lay your life down for them.

Just like we shouldn’t take all the credit when our kid scores the winning hit in the little league baseball game or invents the next Nobel Prize winning genetic code that stops cancer in its tracks… we can’t take all the credit for when things go wrong.

Moms, don’t allow your guilt to suck out the joys of motherhood. Realize you & your kids are gonna make mistakes: some more embarrassing than others ~ some with life-altering consequences. It’s in those times that our kids need our love the most, not our shame.

We should strive to be the best examples, but lets allow for screw ups.

Tantrums will be thrown in public.

Naughty words will be blurted out in front of your MIL.

And don’t even get me started about what the kids will do! 🙂

Love them through their humanity ~ the good, the bad, the ugly. In that process of letting our kids be human, how about we do the same for ourselves? When you blow it, go to God, and your child, if necessary, and ask forgiveness. Teach them by example to forgive & move forward.

Release the burden of ‘motherhood’ guilt. Chances are no one is going to show up at your door and slap you with a “Worst Mother Ever” award. Unless you’re Dina Lohan. Yeah. We need to pray for that woman! 🙂

I wanna hear from you!

Have your or your kids done something lately that have made you feel as though the paparazzi might chase you down with an award you DON’T want? 🙂

Hands-On Missions Outreach

Swaziland, Africa

Here’s the thing. I don’t have to convince you. I believe God has already been tugging on your heart & putting desires in you to serve in the mission field.

God has clearly shown me that my job is not to change people’s hearts & minds, but to find people whose hearts & minds want to be changed.

Well, here’s where the rubber meets the road. Here is your opportunity. And mine. You see, for over a year now my husband & I have felt that stirring & tugging in our hearts to serve on the mission field, specifically in Swaziland. And here we are, with an opportunity to go. We’re not gonna let a little thing like lack of finances get in the way.

I believe if God gives you the vision, He also makes the PROvision!!!!

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Children’s HopeChest Swaziland Beveni Carepoint Trip

September 18th-29th, 2010 (two days to travel both ways)

$1300-1500 land costs and $1200-1500 airfare = $3000

(Totals are appx. only and on the high-end)

Land costs include: hotel, all food & ground transportation

Air costs include: airfare in & out of Johannesburg, Africa

While in Swaziland: There are different activities the team can be involved in, ranging from work projects, house visits, life skills training, VBS, caring for the caregivers and disciplers, in addition to loving on the children! If you have skills you would like to use to serve the Beveni children and adults, let me know!

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I have all the forms you will need and can email them to you promptly, but here’s the basics you’ll need to have to me before June 24th. Yes this is quick, but God is quicker!

*Passports (a quality photocopy of the picture and signature of traveler)

*Children’s HopeChest Short Term Missions Application

*$250 per person – first deposit can be paid online with a credit card if necessary

The application & first deposit deadline is coming soon. No time to waste!

What lights a fire in you and causes you to take a stand in the face of evil – no matter the cost?

Vince Giordano

An excerpt from Looking Down The Barrel of A Shotgun:“An orphan in Africa, Russia, India or some other part of the world is in a desperate battle for identity, self-worth, hope, and even survival. But, an orphan or child that has been taken into the dark world of trafficking enters new and deeper depths of hell. They enter a kind of despair that is a heavy cloak that is most likely to end in their death – usually not of natural causes. It would be the equivalent to drowning but drowning very slowly and painfully.”

This post, written by Vince Giordano, has caused me to stop & think about the serious issues we face together as a human race regarding sex enslavement/trafficking of our children. That’s right, these issues are not someone else’s. They belong to you. They belong to me. The phrase, “don’t you have any human decency?” comes to mind.

What is human decency anyhow? Do we have the kind of human decency that will not stand idly by while millions of children are being kidnapped, enslaved, drugged, tortured, and raped daily? But instead would we courageously go head first into the danger, look down the barrel of a shotgun, if that’s what it takes to rescue them, one at a time, from the hell they live through each & every day? Or are we content to live the so-called American Dream of success & comfort by ignoring the issue?

Ouch.

Truth is many of us just don’t know what to do, or how we can help. So we don’t. In the future, Moms4Change will be sharing some information on organizations who are also looking down the barrel of a shotgun as they fight for the lives & freedom of God’s children who are victims of sex trafficking.

Please pray for Vince & his team who are going into India in a few days to find out how they can help bring light & freedom to the dark world of violence against children in that country. Do me a favor ~ comment on his blog post (at the link above) and let him know you’re supporting his efforts and are praying for him.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. ~Helen Keller

My husband said it’s a test. A test to see if I’ll live out what I’m preachin’ about here on my blog.

Well, I think he’s somewhat right. {By the way, he’s right 90% of the time, which can be annoying}! 🙂 Love you, Honey!

Instead I choose to look at this as an opportunity presented to me that I can decide if I’ll live it out or see the opportunity passed to someone else. I’m seizing the opportunity.

What on earth am I talking about?

Siphiwe is being cared for body, soul & spirit through the Beveni Carepoint in Swaziland

Many of you know that we sponsor a young Swazi girl, Siphiwe, through Childrens HopeChest. Swaziland’s population is approximately 900,000 and HopeChest has 19 Carepoints throughout the country. HopeChest along with Adventures in Missions ~ Swaziland ministers to the spiritual, educational & physical needs of children in the area, many of whom have been orphaned by one or both parents chiefly due to the spread of the AIDS virus.

Siphiwe is helped at Beveni Carepoint along with 131 other vulnerable and orphaned children in Swaziland and is the gathering place where many of them get the only meal they eat for the day.

Each Carepoint in Swaziland has a Sponsorship Coordinator in the States that oversees sponsorships by sharing the needs & updates of the Carepoint & HopeChest ministry. Beveni Carepoint Sponsorship Group is an online community that stays connected to each other and the needs of the children via Facebook. Beveni Carepoint FaceBook Community Group

{Stay with me, I have a point! 🙂 I want to make sure we’re all on the same page!}

Beveni’s current Sponsorship Coordinator is a vibrant woman named Deb Gangemi who resides in Florida with her husband and two boys whom she homeschools. She has been the coordinator for about a year and a half. She has done an amazing job at keeping the needs & heart of Beveni Carepoint at the forefront. She has lived & served out of her humble heart & desire to see all the children cared for. And God has shown Himself strong & generous, hasn’t He?

Deb asked if I would prayerfully consider wearing her shoes as Beveni’s Sponsorship Coordinator. These are big shoes to fill. I did not make this decision lightly or quickly, but at my core know this is the next step God is taking us through.

I am so honored & humbled & horrified! 🙂 That’s right, scared.

Honestly, everyone, I am not qualified. I have no idea what I’m doing or what I’m committing to. Granted both Deb & HopeChest are organized & extremely helpful, but I’ve got a steep learning curve ahead of me.

Thank God my story doesn’t end there!

If there was ever an opportunity for God’s strength to be made perfect in my weakness, it is NOW! I can’t rely on my wit or charm or experience to do this task set before me. Therefore, it forces me to rely on Jesus and humbly come before Him (and you) to seek His heart & direction for Beveni’s children & volunteers who work with them.

Deb & Family ~ thank you for your service to Children’s HopeChest, Beveni & the children, the sponsors. But above all else, thank you for serving our Jesus from your heart. In doing that, you have served us all as His hands & feet. I know you will continue to do the great things He has called you to do for this hour! Thank you!

Sponsors & Beveni Facebook Community– I’m one of you. We have a heart to love on the children who need it most. We have a deep desire to spread the love of Jesus to the ends of the Earth. We long to be a voice for those who on their own have absolutely no platform to make their voice heard.

The vision of the Beveni Carepoint Online Community remains the same – to love, bless & pray for these 132 children as if they were our own, and to give them a hope for the future. You’ll be hearing from me shortly with information about the Swaziland/Beveni Missions Trip coming up in September. Prayerfully consider your part in it.

I am here to serve the children and you, the sponsorship community how ever the Lord directs.

This is an opportunity of a lifetime that my family & I look forward to with excitement & humility. I’ll warn you now…

get ready for a wild, miraculous, joy-filled ride folks! God’s dream for Beveni is bigger than we can imagine!!!!

Please drop a note and say hi, if you can! I’m looking forward to meeting you all!

Swaziland, located in South Africa has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the world, giving it the name

‘Nation of Orphans’

Swaziland’s general population in 2005 was 1.3 million. In 2009 the population fell to 900,000.

Nation of Orphans

There are between 120,000-150,000 orphans, which is appx. 14% of the population, expected to rapidly increase in the next two years to well over 200,000 orphans.

Much of this is due to the HIV/AID epidemic. HIV infection rate is at 44.6%. Statistics say that 70% of kids will be HIV+ by the age of 15! If you are 15, your chance of reaching 30 years old is only 6%.

I read that in the year 2020, it is expected that no adults will be left in Swaziland. Swaziland has the lowest life expectancy in the world– 28 years old.

“Pure and faultless religion is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”

May Moms4Change be a symphony of voices with compassionate hearts & hands, who will stand in the gap for a Nation of Orphans. A Nation of Orphans that cry out for their basic human needs to be met – food, water, education, and medical treatment that they may fight against the death of their children, families & country.

Do you hear their cries? I pray that today you hear & say, “YES! I’ll be the one to help! I’ll be the voice that cries out with you to those who can make a difference. I will stand in the gap for you, Swaziland.”